Saturday, December 30, 2017

The beginning of a new year is always cause for reflection. Here at Boxes and Booze I’m thinking about
this dual hobby of mine, which I have oddly enough managed to combine. I’ve made many friends from both sides of
this coin and for that I am truly amazed and thankful. It’s become a reliable outlet for me to
explore my creative side and I’m so glad
there are a few folks out there who enjoy seeing what I’m up to.

Yosegi Oak Wood Slide Box (Stickman Puzzle Box No. 1)

“A puzzlebox is a complex container that challenges the
mind, redirects perceptions, and whose solution eludes those seeking to
discover its secret chamber.” – Robert Yarger

For this New Year’s post I’m offering another kind of
beginning, from the puzzle box perspective at least. Last year we traveled north to Canada where I
explored the theme of time and a unique puzzle built inside the case of an
antique clock. The year before we
celebrated in Japanese style with soba buckwheat noodles. That was rather apropos as the origin as well
as the rebirth of the puzzle box was in Japan.
This year we will celebrate in the US, tracing the origin story of one
of our most celebrated artists and the start of something special.

When Robert Yarger and his brother were boys, they each received
a traditional Japanese puzzle box one Christmas. Over the years the boxes were lost, and eventually Robert decided to make a few such boxes of his own to replace them,
giving the results to his brother, family and friends. These would become the first Stickman puzzle
boxes. Luckily, a number of the boxes
were also sold to collectors who recognized that there was something special going
on inside these plain, rustic boxes, and who requested new designs. One of my favorite stories about this time is
how frightening it was for Robert to use the old radial arm saw he had at the time,
which would launch projectiles across his shop, scream and smoke like a
banshee, and make him practically pee in his pants as he turned it on. It’s a testament to his skill that he could
create such incredible objects (including all components of the first 3
Stickman boxes) with the most rudimentary of tools.

The original run of “Oak Wood Slide” boxes (what would
become The Stickman No. 1 Puzzle Box) were fashioned from scrap wood Robert had
about his shop and as such were rustic in appearance and varied in shape and
size. Details like beveled edges and
decorative grooves were all created with the radial saw. Even then, the boxes featured more than meets
the eye and the spark of Stickman genius can be seen. There are three separate compartments to be
discovered, and an internal locking system which causes one drawer to open as
another is being closed. The effect is
rather metaphorical, and unintentionally prophetic for this artist’s work. Robert is eternally in pursuit of the
horizon. He always creates something
new, something not seen or done before, and when he does pay homage to past
designers or designs, he adds his own brand of new magic to it. When he completes a project, he rarely
revisits the same idea again, unless there was some element to it which he left
unexplored.

Beautiful yosegi made from poplar and wenge

He also hates to revisit past puzzles, even if all of the
original run were never finished, as has happened with some of his
designs. Fortunately, he loves to
encourage and mentor new artists. Rick
Jenkins has been Robert’s most recent apprentice and has developed and acquired
the skills found in all of the Stickman series.
With his help, many of the original puzzles which had never been
finished are now complete, including the final run of Stickman No. 1
boxes. As a fitting tribute to the
origins of his puzzle company and passion, Robert and Rick finished the final
box, number 100, in beautiful yosegi veneer.
Rick learned the technique for this on his own, essentially teaching it
to Rob in the process, who offered advice and technique suggestions along the way. This experience actually
prompted Robert to develop the “Traditional” box (Stickman No. 32), a design he
might not have attempted otherwise. The
“Yosegi” Oak Wood Slide Box is unique in the No. 1 series, wrapped in a
stunning checkered and striped pattern which gives the box a distinctive
appearance and prominently shows off Rick’s impressive skills. The box heralds another beginning, and we
look forward to seeing what Rick Jenkins will create on his own as this new
drawer begins to open.

Boxes and Booze

To ring in the New Year along with this
portentous puzzle I’ve mixed up A Few of My Favorite Things, just like the box
does. The aptly named drink features the
special Italian aperitif known as Barolo Chinato which comes from the Piedmont
region in north western Italy. Barolo is
a prized wine made from the Nebbiolo grape, with a following and provenance
which needs no alternate use. Yet
generations of distillers have used it as a base in which to steep cinchona
bark, spices, sugar and herbs to produce unique and delicious vintages of
something incredibly special. It’s like
applying the addition of complex puzzles to an incredibly skilled and beautiful
piece of woodwork which could easily stand on its own to create something
richer and more layered.

My Favorite Things by Paul Manzelli

Mixologist Paul
Manzelli, head bartender at Bergamot in Massachusetts, combined a few of his favorite
things into this cocktail, which includes Barolo Chinato along with rye whiskey
and the Italian Amari Aperol and Cynar.
The chinato brings wonderful balance to this combination of the lightly
bitter grapefruit Aperol and the surprisingly sweet artichoke Cynar. Manzelli clearly loves Italian aperitifs and
digestifs. And who can blame him. This cocktail might become one of your
favorite things too.

Here’s a toast to woodwork and whiskey and warm winter
laughter, puzzles and potions and praise to the crafter, boxes and booze and what
family brings, yes, these are a few of my favorite things.

Cheers and Happy New Year!

A few of my favorite things ...

My Favorite Things by Paul Manzelli

1 ½ oz rye whiskey

½ oz Aperol

½ oz Cynar

½ oz Barolo Chinato

1 dash orange bitters

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a favorite
glass. Garnish with an orange twist or a
Stickman logo.

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Tis the season and it should come as no surprise that I’m
continuing my holiday themed offerings again.
I’ve been saving up something special for this week which coincides with
Christmas. Although we don’t get much
snow here in Houston we can still dream of a winter wonderland, a toasty
fireplace and the fresh scent of evergreen.
I’m always fascinated by how traditions evolve over time and the origins
of those traditions. The Christmas tree,
for example, and how it became a symbol of this season. It’s not hard to understand why people
throughout history have been drawn to the evergreen, which stands like a beacon
of hope in the cold winter, promising that spring is coming one day. Why not place ornaments and offerings on such
a tree, to entice it to bring spring even sooner! I’ve got a nice little
ornament around here somewhere…

The Snowflake Box by Robert Yarger

The Snowflake Box (Stickman No. 9) was designed with the
idea of making a puzzle box tree ornament.
It’s a lovely little box attached to a loop and would look nice on
anyone’s tree. Robert Yarger designed
these with fine interlocking corners which do indeed look like snowflakes, and
the white Holly wood completes the look. As a decorative ornament, these are
wonderful and you won’t likely find a finer piece of American ornamental folk
art around.

Ho Ho Holly

Of course, this is a
Stickman box, so the beauty doesn’t end there.
It is also an incredibly satisfying and brilliant puzzle box. The Snowflake is composed of six similar
pieces which form each side of the cube.
Once solved, the panels can be disassembled, creating another
puzzle. It’s two puzzles in one, a gift
that keeps on giving! The box has a wonderful solution. It holds a few unexpected surprises, but
everything is visible and there are no hidden tricks, which makes it such an
elegant design. It’s also quite
marvelous how the finely milled corners interlace, overlap and
interconnect. The craftsmanship is
outstanding.

Rudolph Collins by Bach Nielsen

To toast this special box I’m calling on the special
reindeer who pays a visit this time of year – Rudolph of course! The Rudolph
Collins is a local favorite at The Barking Dog, a cozy down to earth bar in
Copenhagen where the staff create Christmas cocktails for a cocktail advent
calendar each year. This one is based
off the classic Tom Collins, that refreshing summery sipper with gin, lemon and
soda. For the Christmas version there is
added sloe gin, the wintery gin infused with sloe berries, and cinnamon syrup,
which always turns up the winter wonderland vibes in a holiday drink. It’s a delicious variation and a tasty treat
for the holidays. Try one of these at
your own festive gathering and have a happy, happy holiday. Cheers!

Flavors of the season will make your nose shine bright

Rudolph Collins by Bach Nielsen (The Barking Dog, Copenhagen)

1 oz London dry gin

¾ oz sloe gin

¾ oz fresh lemon

½ oz cinnamon syrup

Chilled soda water

Shake ingredients together with ice and strain into a tall
glass with ice. Top with the soda water
and garnish with a cinnamon stick - or a lemon wheel Rudolph. Cheers!

Saturday, December 16, 2017

To truly enjoy the holiday season this time of year it’s always nice to keep it simple. Remember the little things in life and spend quality time with family and
friends. These simple pleasures become
amplified and take on new meaning and depth. Here’s a fairly “simple” puzzle box I received as a gift
from a friend, a small gesture yet one that means so much. Shiro Tajima, formerly of the Karakuri
Creation Group, enjoys playing with simple shapes and structures in surprising,
unusual and puzzling ways. He created
his “In a Cage” puzzle with the goal of designing a simple box with a
complex secret. He is masterful at the
small details in his boxes and has created some of the most puzzling and award
winning offerings in the past.

In a Cage by Shiro Tajima

In a Cage is a perfect little puzzle box. It really is so simple, just a small redwood box
inside a white dogwood cage. The box is
held in place somehow, but moves around and from side to side. Puzzling out the solution is not so simple
after all, and requires a number of insights into how the structure functions.
It seems hard to believe that such a little device could keep you busy for
long, but it does. It’s so clever and
satisfying. It’s truly a brilliant
design and won an honorable mention at the 2017 Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design
Competition. It’s a great puzzle to slip
in your pocket and hand to a friend, and if it can’t be solved it still acts as
a lovely fidget spinner!

It seems so simple, and yet ...

To toast this little marvel I made a replica of In a Cage …
in a cocktail! Sticking with the theme
of something simple which has hidden complexity, I’ve created a variation on
the classic Brandy Alexander, one of the more deliciously simple holiday
cocktails in existence. I always seem to
come back to this one during the holidays.
Traditionally, brandy is combined with crème de cacao (chocolate
liqueur) and heavy cream in equal proportions for a decadent dessert drink
which dates back to 1915 and a bartender named Troy Alexander. He used gin in the original, but brandy
became dandy soon after.

This cocktail is in a cage!

For this version I’ve swapped the brandy for Pedro Ximenez
Sherry, a seriously scrumptious dessert wine because why the hell not. But you really begin to appreciate this
Alexander more and more as you experience it (much like the puzzle box …) thanks
to the special holiday ice keeping it cool.
The ice is made from cinnamon spiced cranberry syrup and Becherovka, the
Czech Republic herbal liqueur which dates from 1807 and has been described as
“Christmas in a glass”. Its flavors of
ginger and cinnamon blend deliciously with the cranberry syrup and swirls of
the melting goodness ebb into the Sherry Alexander as you sip it until you
start to feel guilty about experiencing all this pleasure. There’s a puzzle in your hand, a toasty fire
going, maybe a kitten in your lap and your family all lounging about looking at
their phones. It really doesn’t get any better than this, does it? Go on, you deserve it. Cheers!

Don't be cagey - it's delicious!

St. Nicholas Cage

1 oz PX Sherry

1 oz Crème de Cacao (Tempis Fugit)

1 oz heavy cream

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a favorite
glass. Add a large prepared ice cube and
grate some nutmeg on top.

Spiced cranberry syrup: Add 1 cup fresh cranberries, 2
cinnamon sticks and a few allspice cloves with 1 cup water to a sauce pan. Simmer until berries burst then mash. Add 1 cup sugar to dissolve and simmer for a
few minutes. Strain the mix through a
mesh strainer to remove the large solids.
Scale up as desired, this stuff is delicious.

Simple pleasures

Special thanks to Matthew Dawson for the perfect puzzle
gift. The bourbon gummy bears have
nothing to do with the cocktail, but Matt loves gummy bears so those are for
him.

Saturday, December 9, 2017

It’s that time of year again when we all like to indulge
ourselves with particularly special treats and gifts. I’m not Italian, but my family and I have
grown to love having the special Italian holiday bread known as panettone on
hand this time of year. Originally from
Milan and dating back in origin all the way to the Roman Empire, panettone has
now become a holy grail of sorts to bakers and achieved a certain cult
status. This is because, of course, it’s
incredibly complicated. Panettone dough
is one of the most challenging to work with and can be impossibly tricky
according to bakers. To create the
perfect, lightly delicate and delicious cake, full of tiny treats inside, which
literally pulls apart and melts in your mouth, requires days of preparation and
precise planning. Only a true master
baker can pull it off.

Blackjack Cake by Perry McDaniel

A feat which Perry McDaniel could handle with aplomb, no
doubt. After all, his Puzzled Guy
Patisserie produces some of the finest, most precise and beguiling puzzles
around, and folks line up around the corner whenever the bake shop happens to
be open. If you’ve ever had the
opportunity to experience how Perry designs his puzzles, you’ll also note the
incredible process and detail he undergoes, with prototypes that look like
geometric experiments gone awry. Somehow
he turns these into the most delicious looking creations which beg to be
devoured, but keep you guessing and guessing as to just how that can be
accomplished.

His Blackjack Cake is an innocent and tempting looking treat. It appears to be a chocolate layer cake with
a splash of chocolatey sauce drizzled over top and oozing down the sides. The artistry of this piece is simply wonderful,
and mimics reality so well it fooled many in an unexpected way. Perry sold
these at IPP 37 in Paris, and offered additional real cake pastries alongside
them as well. Reportedly, some people
wanted to purchase the “other” puzzle box from him too – the actual cake. His creations are so lifelike that a real
slice of cake might just be a puzzle box too.

Only the finest ingredients will do

Perry likes to push the envelope with his puzzle boxes. He is able to build in tiny features and
details which seem impossible for such small pieces. He hides moves in plain sight incredibly
well. And he likes to add novel
elements, as with the Blackjack Cake.
The name is actually a clue to the goal, for in addition to finding and
opening the two secret compartments here, there is also a game of cards. Win, and you’ll be holding Blackjack in your
hands. The mechanism employs Perry’s
usual assortment of tricky, well-hidden moves, but also a few novel elements
which will either infuriate or delight you.
I was personally delighted, and I’d love to play another hand. Fortunately, as with his prior petite four
and bon bon puzzles, the “pastries collection” will be another series. Hooray,
and bon appetit!

Il Panetun by Michele Garofalo

I’m toasting Perry and his marvelous cake which is really a
puzzle box with another cake – which is really a cocktail! The “Jerry Thomas Project” is a speakeasy
style bar in the heart of Rome, Italy and home to world renown mixologist
Michele Garofalo. The bar celebrates the
“Professor” Jerry Thomas, one of the fathers of cocktails and the original
mustachioed bartender from the nineteenth century. He predated the prohibition era so naming a
speakeasy in his honor is a bit anachronistic but we can forgive the artistic
license – the drinks there sound fabulous.
Check out their home page, where the secret password hides in plain
sight for you to discover. As a tribute
to his home town and their historical cake, Garofalo has created a liquid
version. His “Il Panetun” recreates the
panettone as one of the more decadent and delicious holiday cocktails you are likely
to consume this season. It features a homemade chocolate sauce and the
decadent, quinine based wine Barolo Chinato, which was meant to be paired with
chocolate, after all. The result is
simply stunning, rich and utterly delicious. I’m trying to imagine enjoying one of these
with some authentic artisanal panettone simultaneously but my brain keeps short
circuiting when I do. Here’s to special
treats and the spirit of indulgence. Who says you can’t solve your puzzle and
drink it too? Cheers!

The combination of chocolate and chinato is heavenly

Il Panetun by Michele Garofalo

1 ½ oz gin

½ oz Grand Marnier

½ oz Barolo Chinato

1 oz homemade chocolate syrup

1 oz heavy cream

1 egg yolk

2 dashes orange bitters

1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake ingredients together vigorously without ice and then
again with ice to chill and strain into a favorite glass. Garnish with a Pocky
stick or a slice of panettone.

Saturday, December 2, 2017

Especially because the days are getting shorter as those of
us in the northern hemisphere move closer to the winter solstice, it’s nice to
see the sun. Here’s a brief glimpse of
that erstwhile ray of brightness in our lives, shortened thanks to the Earth’s
axis. Anyway that’s my excuse this week and
I’m sticking to it. Akio Kamei’s Solar
Box is a fiendish little star masquerading as an octagonal puzzle box with
curving rays of frustration encircling the main compartment. At least master Kamei mentions in his
description that it’s “not easy” to open.
I certainly felt a little burnt by the time I mastered its gravitational
pull. I almost went blind staring into
it for so long. The Solar Box is a
beautiful creation and twinkles like the star it is thanks to the lovely
zelkova wood. One final word of caution
though, you’ll need to have some Serious Puzzle Fortitude to solve this – I’d
recommend SPF 50.

The Sun by Joe Schofield

This puzzle box star needs something equally bright to sip
while solving. The Sun, by Joe Schofield from The
Tippling Club in Singapore, provides just the right amount of bright, warming
holiday cheer. Singapore isn't a cold, snowy wonderland this time of year – its nice and sunny. So in Singapore, this cocktail is actually a
winter holiday drink! A seasonal mix of
white rum, tart lemon, and rich honey syrup start this nuclear fusion going nicely. Add a few photons of the gentian-based
Peychauds bitters (which are out of this world) and ignite with a gamma ray of
liquid heat – the original calls for Tabasco and I used Habanero Hellfire
bitters, which can light quite a fire in your mouth. Shake it all up while humming “Here comes the
Sun” and sip responsibly, or you’ll be seeing stars. Cheers!

A bright, sunny and winter cocktail with a hint of heat

The Sun

1 ¾ oz white rum

¾ oz fresh lemon

½ oz rich honey syrup (3:1 ratio)

3 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters

1 dash Tabasco

Shake ingredients together over ice and strain into a
favorite glass. Garnish with a sunny
lemon wheel.